Harry wanted to talk with Tonks before bed so he let Padma take charge along with the new Ravenclaw Prefects. As quickly and politely as he could, Harry made his way through the hordes of students wanting to leave the Great Hall and go sleep in their comfy beds. It took a few minutes but Harry finally reached the High Table where Tonks was waiting for him.

"Wotcher Harry!"

"Tonks, I didn't know you were the new Defense Professor, what are you doing here?"

"Well, Professor Dumbledore is having a harder time finding people to take the post, so he asked members of the Order. As I was the only one who volunteered and with the fact that I'm an Auror, I got the job." She said this very smugly.

"But it's dangerous, I don't want to see you get hurt, and aren't you pregnant?"

Tonks's happy face turned to one of shock. "How did you find out about that, we have told anyone yet, not even my parents."

"Remus came around our house last night, seeking comfort from Sirius and James. He was worried about his kid inheriting his lycanthropy and then about the fact that its father is a werewolf. He seemed pretty upset."

"Remus did disappear for a while last night. What happened?" Tonks sounded worried.

"Well, first Sirius and James toasted you and Remus, 'the next generation of the Marauders' they said. After a couple of drinks, Remus again stated his fears, thinking everything he had done was a mistake. They spent nearly a half an hour arguing back and forth before I finally managed to make him see reason."

"Thank-you for that Harry. When he came back, Remus was a little angry but he quickly became happy for us; he was so excited. He wants you to be godfather you know?"

"Really?"

"Yes, he asked me before we went to bed. He was most insistent and I just couldn't say no."

"Thanks for that Tonks, but now I have a new reason for wanting you to be careful, I actually want to meet my godchild."

"Oh Harry, you're just like Remus. I'll be careful, and I have his and Moody's notes from when they taught here. Besides, what's the worst that can happen?"

As she was finishing talking, Tonks waved her hand about and it knocked over her half finish goblet. The goblet fell on her fork, which went flying into the air and landed with its prongs in the table, an inch from Harry's left hand. Tonks gave him an apologetic look as he raised his eyebrows at her. Shaking his head, Harry left her and headed back to Ravenclaw Tower. The entire way, Harry was thinking how to help Ravenclaw win the Dueling Trophy. Dozens of strategies, plans, and move passed through Harry's mind, but in the end he figured it all would come down to the rules and who he had participate. Soon Harry reached the bronze knocker that guarded the entrance to the Ravenclaw common room. Knocking once, Harry waited for his riddle.

"What herb cures all ailments?"

Harry smirked at this one, it was a trick question.

"Time."

The eagle flapped its wings and the door opened. As he climbed through, Harry was swarmed by nearly all of Ravenclaw House wanting to join the Dueling Club and asking questions about the Tournament. It took five minutes for him to quiet everyone down and a couple more minutes to explain that he was going to go over all the rules first before scheduling a meeting. He also advised everyone who wanted to participate in the Tournament to do the same. After fending off a more questions, Harry finally climbed the stairs to his dorm. He quickly changed into his pajamas and climbed into bed and fell asleep.

After a good night's sleep, Harry was fully ready for class. A handful more of people delayed Harry leaving, having missed his announcement the previous night. Soon, Harry was leading a small group of first years through the halls down to breakfast. Padma and Luna were already there eating. Smiling, Harry said good morning to a half asleep Padma and a fully awake Luna, Harry grabbed a bowl of cereal and started eating. Ten minutes later Professor Flitwick was going around the table handing out schedules. Seeing he had Defense first thing, Harry said good-bye and went towards the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. When he arrived, he saw that a good number of students, including Draco Malfoy, were already looking at the rules for the Tournament.

Pushing his way through, Harry saw that the rules were numerous and some were complicated. To win the Tournament, a House had to win the most matches. There were a total of six matches, enough for each House to face the others once. In order to win the match, a House had to win two out of the three duels in the match. In each duel, a side had three duelists and the round only ended when all three on one side were unable to continue. If the two sides each had one win, they could instead have only one person compete to win that round. Each Dueling Club had to have seven people at minimum and the Captain must compete in each match.

Those were the basic rules though Harry planned to go over them more finely later, each Captain would get their own copy at the meeting later. Taking one last look at the rules, Harry entered the classroom. It was only five minutes until the start and six others were already there, including Hermione and Susan. He took a seat near the front next to Neville and took out his book, quill, and ink. As he was doing this, he saw Seamus enter the classroom, cross over to Susan and give her a kiss on the cheek, and then claim his seat behind her. Harry frowned and glared at Seamus for a couple of seconds. A minute before class started, John and Ron ran in and claimed the desk next to Harry.

Harry frowned once again at the smiling boys. They looked like they had just done something against the rules and hadn't gotten caught. From what Harry knew, they probably had. After the Weasley twins had left, John and Ron had replaced them as the major trouble makers at Hogwarts. A crash and 'ow' tore Harry's gaze from them. Tonks was lying on the floor next to her desk; she had tripped again while moving around it. While most of the class laughed, Tonks gave an embarrassed smile and Harry put his face in his palms.

"Sorry about that, but that's one way to grab your attention. Welcome to seventh year Defense Against the Dark Arts. I'm your Professor Tonks-Lupin, but you can all call me Tonks. I'm also an Auror and have been for three years. If anyone wants to join the Crops, the just have to tell me and I'll see what I can do to help you apply. First things first, everyone tell me your names and your experience in Defense, then I'll go over what we'll cover this year."

For a half hour, Harry listened to his classmates go over their various experiences. It got very boring after the first couple of people and only got interesting when someone had an interesting experience or plan with a N.E.W.T. in Defense. Everyone got annoyed when Hermione went into very heavy details about her experiences and again when John bragged about his adventures, all of them extremely exaggerated. Thank-fully for Harry's sanity, Tonks stopped John in mid reenactment of the First Task in the Triwizard Tournament. Harry also talked a bit about John's adventures, but a shorter version and how he was there. John and Ron looked angry, Hermione neutral, Neville a little awed, and the rest of the class annoyed. They had heard it all before, unremarkable Harry Potter, jealous of his brother's fame, attempting to gain some attention for himself. The only ones that believed him were Hermione, Luna, and Tonks, and maybe Neville.

As soon as the last person was finished, Tonks handed out a short syllabus that explained what they would cover and when. Harry noticed that much came from the Auror's training as well as protection from what Voldemort and his Death Eaters did and used. Tonks then had them start on the basics, Disarming and Shield Charms. She told them to start out loud and when they felt comfortable, turn to nonverbal. Harry's partner was Neville and he held back a bit for his sake. He kept his charms a little underpowered and made sure Neville was ready before attempting to disarm him. He also did use nonverbal spell-work as Neville wasn't fully ready for it. He wasn't the only one however.

Professor Adofo and the others started them on nonverbal spells last year but not very many got the hang of it. Harry was one of the few who did and managed to get a nonverbal spell to work after only a couple of tries. Hermione Granger was the only one who was now using nonverbal spells, causing her partner Fay Dunbar quite a bit of trouble. Suddenly, Hermione's wand flew out of her hand just as Fay was bringing her own up. Both girls were shocked and confused but Harry knew where to look. Sure enough, having gotten bored with each other, John and Ron had secretly turned their wands on their classmates, hexing them while no one was looking. Smirking, Harry decided to give them a taste of their own medicine. Quickly raising his own wand and aiming, Harry cast two nonverbal Disarming Charms so fast both boys had only enough time to blink before their wands flew out of their hands into Tonks's.

"Excellent spell-work Harry, twenty points to Ravenclaw. And as for you two, ten points each from Gryffindor for such childish behavior. Don't even think about arguing," she interrupted as Ron opened his mouth, "I saw what you were doing. It serves you right for losing your wands in such a manner. However, I have an idea. Harry, Miss Granger, to the front please, I want you two to give a demonstration on nonverbal spells."

Smiling, Harry enjoyed John's glare and glanced in Susan's direction. She had a small smile and look of interest on her face. Tonks's demonstration ended up being a Ping-Pong match between Harry and Hermione. She sent a spell silently towards him and he deflected it back at her. Soon the spell was crisscrossing the room between the two shields. Out of the corner of his eye, Harry could see money changing hands in several bets to see who would fail to bring up their shield in time first. Hermione had speed, but Harry had the power. Every time, Hermione would bring up her shield a fraction of a second faster, but would be pushed back an inch because of the power of the reflected spell. He was so focused that when the bell rang ending the class, Harry was distracted that his angle was off and instead of sending the spell back at Hermione, it went into the crowd of students and hit Seamus, sending him back a couple of feet and hitting a desk.

"Well, that ends class for today." said a surprised Tonks. "Homework is an essay on the Shield Charm, to be handed in next week, and keep practicing."

As they filed out of the classroom, Harry saw Dean help his friend up. Seamus was a little wobbly and glared at Harry before leaving. John and Ron also glared as they too left but Hermione gave him a smile and congratulations for his shields. Tonks also gave congratulations and ten points each. Harry and Ravenclaw's next class was Herbology so that filed out of the castle and to the greenhouses. Much like their fifth year, Professor Sprout started out her class with a lecture, only this time about N.E.W.T. exams. Then she had them go around the greenhouse and take notes on various plants and making them try and figure out what they were. For homework they had to research the plants, describe them, and identify the differences between them and others that looked like them.

After, it was back up to the castle for lunch and a small break before Transfiguration. Harry ate a quick lunch then went up to the library and grabbed a handful of books. He managed to finish his Shield essay and make good progress on his Herbology before the start of Transfiguration. Like Sprout, Professor McGonagall lectured on the importance of N.E.W.T. examinations and then what they would entitle. The sound of scratching quills filled the classroom all period as they took notes on cross-species transformation. When the class ended, they all groaned when McGonagall assigned their longest essay yet that was due Friday.

Ancient Runes was Harry's final subject that day and the most head-pounding. Professor Babbling spoke very fast and gave a dizzying number of notes that almost caused Harry's head to spin. Then, to review, she assigned a long translation and eight chapters to read. Tired, Harry once again headed up to the library to work on his homework. He wasn't the only one, nearly every fifth, sixth, and seventh year was crowding the library, grabbing dozens of books for their mountains of homework. Harry noticed that John and Ron weren't there, but Hermione was, already writing away. Claiming his own table, Harry dug out his Herbology notes and started on his own homework. By the time dinner came around, he had finished with his Herbology and almost finished his Transfiguration, but he still had a ways to go.

During dinner, Harry was again badgered by those wanting to join both the Dueling Club and Quidditch Team. He tried very hard not to yell, especially when someone came around while he had food in his mouth, but he nearly lost it a couple of times. After dinner he returned to the common room to work on his homework and was interrupted dozens of times before he had to leave for Prefect patrols. Once again his was paired with Amber this night and he had to show her what to do. It was easy as it was only the second night back and not too many people were about. He answered what few questions she had and soon they parted ways again, headed for bed.

As I am back in school now, updates may be a little slow as I type out the chapters. I'll post as soon as I'm finished with one but the times will vary depending on the amount of homework and studying I have. As usual, read, review, and ask questions if you have them.